Wire connecter



W. R. SOMMER WIRE CONNECTER Nov. 19, 1929.

Original Filed April 1, 1925 ,4 TTORNEY Patented Nov. 19,- 1929 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE WILLIAM B. SOMMER, OF HACKENSACK, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO THE JIFFY WIRE CONNECTOR COMPANY, OF HACKENSACK, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JEBSEY wmn comvnc'rnn Beflled for abandoned application serial No. 19,925, filed April i, 1925. This application filed October so,

1926. Serial No. 144,322.

This invention relates to the class of devices for forming an electro-conductive joint between two or more wires which are characterized by an insulative shell having a bore and a metal sleeve within the bore having its own bore formed with ascrew-thread so that when the wires, lying side by side, are forced into the sleeve and turned in the proper direction the screw-thread will cut in effect a mating screw-thread in'the wires, producing a screwis of course important in these devices that the jointestablished should be such that any wire should be incapable of being pulled out; on the other hand, it is desirable that little effort and that only of the bare hands should be required in order to force the wires screwfashion into the device. Both of these desiderata have not been present in previous devices of this class; if the joint has reliably prevented the pulling out of the wires then the force required to form it was beyond the hand-grip capacity of the workman, and if the conditions have been such that any person having a fair grip could force in the wires to the limit then the joint was so weak that the'wires could be pulled out. One object of this invention is to rovide a device of this class in which a per ectly effective jointmay quired on the part of the operator to form the joint.

used and of conventional form a thread-cuttin sleeve of special type.

gther objects and certain advantageous features of the invention will be hereinafter set forth in connection with the detailed description of the improved device and the manner in which it is used.

In the drawing,

Fig. IJIS a longitudinal central sectional view of the device, showing the wires about to be entered;

Fig. 2 is a similar section, with the wires in place and the 'oint perfected, the wires appeering in side e evation;

' Fig. 3 is a section on line 3-3 in Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged side elevation of the thread-cutting sleeve; and

joint between the device and each wire. It

be established and yet no unusual effort is re-.

I accomplish this object by substituting for the thread-cutting sleeve heretofore Fig. 5 a fragmentary longitudinal section thereof.

1 designates a generally cylindrical shell of insulating material having one end closed. 2 is the thread-cutting metal sleeve encased in the same or occupying its bore 3. In forming the device the shell is molded on the sleeve by a suitable method not herein material, any possibility of the shell twisting loose from the sleeve being prevented by exterior knurling 4 formed on the sleeve so that in the moldin the sleeve and shell will become firmly locke together. i

The sleeve for subserving its function as a thread-cutter thus to establish the joint to be formed is provided interiorly with a spiral cutting element 5 which is l-shape d in crosssection but whose volutes are spaced from each other. That is to say, instead of the inclined side of any one volute meeting the inclined side of the next adjoining volute (as the sleeve is seen in longitudinal section in Fig. 5) to form a V, such two sides are spaced from each other at the bases of the two v0.- lutes, the intervening surface 6 being cylindrical. This form of sleeve is entirely unique. In previous devices of this class the V-shaped thread-cutting element had the. volutes thereof directly adjoining each other. Therefore, whereas in that case it is either a matter of its being impossible by mere hand-grip to screw the wire ends fully home in the sleeve or, if such be possible, then ofthe joint being occasionally if not frequently so weak. that a wire can be pulled out, in the former case the wires can be readily screwed fully home and anchora e for the wires by my device is not apprecia lysupplemented and hence obstructed by thework of overcoming friction and efi'ecting compression. Again, takin the case where one of the wires is a strande wire, whereas an effective holding of each wire can only be accomplished by adly distorting and sometimes disrupting a number of the strands of the stranded wire within the device when of the previous type, with my device an efiective holding'is accomplished without appreciable disturbance of or injury to the stranded wire on which wire the cutting element is effective only to slidingly indent or score such wire and not to incise, rupture or strain it.

In many instances the workman is positionedso that he cannot conveniently see to introduce the wires to the device; wherefore, and also to avoid twisting the wire ends together, I form its mouth 7, leading to the bore of its sleeve, flaring or tapered. So far as sleeve 2 is concerned, the smooth flared surface thus afiorded, reaching quite to the adjoining end of the bore, affords a face for compacting together the extremities of the wires if they are stiff and planishing down any burrs left thereon bythe wire-cutting tool and then inducting such ends into said bore and so into engagement with the threadcutting element; and, so far as both shell and sleeve are concerned, since the inner or smaller diameter of the flare in the shell does not exceed that of the outer or larger'diameter of the flare in the sleeve, the whole operation resolves itself into'the sim 1e and single one of screwing the wires into t e deviceuntil they are home and locked in place by the thread-cutting element, which Will. be apparent by the sudden additional resistance then occurring.

When assembling a wire of yielding ma.

terial, such as a stranded or fixture wire a,

with other wires,as wires of harder material, like line wires 12, I'extend the endof the first wire beyond the ends of the others,.as in Fig. 1, where all the wire ends areshown bared,

ready to be, introduced. Then when the group of wires are introduced into the de-' vice 1n the manner described the closed end of the bore of the device becomes in effect an anvil 8 by and upon which the projecting end of the ieldin stranded wire becomes u set, bent into a ob-like mass 9, Fig. 2.

is feature of my "invention is not to be regarded as indispensably an adjunct of my specific joint forming-device, for given any joint-forming device into which the wires arescrewed'it willbe ap arent that with one wire formed in the device with a knob-like mass or head in this way the integrity of the joint formed will be very materially in creased.

Having thus fully described my invention what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A device of the class described having a bore to receive the wires to be united and in the bore an inwardly projecting threadcutting element the volutes of which are spaced from each other at their bases and gach uninterrupted around theaxis of said ore.

2. A device of the'class described having a bore to receive the wires to be united and in the bore an inwardly projecting substantally V-shaped thread-cutting element the volutes of which are spaced from each other at their bases, and each uninterrupted around the axis of said bore.

3. A device of the class described including a shell of insulating material having a bore and a thread-formmg member fixedvinsaid bore and having a thread-forming bore substantially concentric with the first bore,

said bores having asmooth conical mouth formed in said shell and member with the smaller diameter of that portion thereof which is in the shell not .greater than the larger diameter of that portion thereof which is in said member, whereby said mouth other wn'e or wires, and thereupon screwing over all such ends a uniting device having a screw-threaded bore open at one end to receive such ends and having an abutment at I the other, continuing such screwing until the projecting end portion of the yielding wire is upset upon the endsof the other wire or wires by said abutment.

5. A united wire assembly includin a device having a threaded bore formed with one end open and with an abutment at the other, and a plurality of wires having their end portions received and gripped by the thread ing of said bore, theend of one such wire beingupset and its upset portion being held between said abutment and the end portion or portions of the other wire or wires.

I In testimony whereof I aflix in Si ature.

WILLIAM R. S M ER. 

